This invention relates to a wheelchair transporter for use on an escalator, also relates to an escalator control system for transporting the wheelchair transporter on the escalator.
With the development of welfare society, there have been suggested and produced many sorts of wheelchair transporters which can be used in an railway station or a school building to transport a wheelchair up or down a stairway. However, no one has thought of manufacturing a wheelchair transporter capable of transporting a wheelchair on an escalator.
In order to solve the above problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-pen No. 7-125964 has suggested an escalator system for transporting a wheelchair, as shown in FIG. 11.
Referring to FIG. 11, the conventional escalator system 100 includes an entrance 102, an exit 104, a plurality of steps 110 connected continuously in an endless manner. There is an operation device 106 provided in the entrance 102, another operation device 108 provided in the exit 104.
When the escalator system 100 is to be used for transporting a wheelchair, the operation device 106 or the operation device 108 operates to have two adjacent steps 110, 110 combined into a large one-piece step so that a wheelchair may be mounted thereon. On the other hand, when the escalator system 100 is to be used for transporting common passengers, the one-piece step may be changed back into original two steps 110, 110.
However, there is a trouble with the above-described conventional escalator system 100. Namely, when the escalator is used to transport a wheelchair, the operating condition of the escalator has to be changed into wheelchair transporting mode, hence it is necessary to temporarily stop the transportation of common passengers.
After the transportation of the wheelchair is over, the operation mode has to be changed back into common operation mode so as to restart the transportation of common passengers. As a result, there is a relatively long time interval needed to stop the common use of the escalator for transporting common passengers, hence causing a great inconvenience in the daily use of such an escalator system.